A typical circuit board assembly includes a circuit board formed of circuit board materials (e.g., fiberglass, copper, etc.) and circuit board components (e.g., processor, memory, etc.) mounted to the circuit board. To improve the performance of certain circuit board assemblies (e.g., to expand memory or expand processing capability of the circuit board assembly), manufacturers electrically interconnect one or more separate circuit board assemblies. For example, manufacturers attach secondary computer board assemblies, referred to as daughter boards, to a primary circuit board, referred to as a motherboard. Such attachment typically occurs between a daughter board connector associated with the daughter board and a motherboard connector associated with the motherboard. Electrical coupling of the daughter board connector to the motherboard connector allows for transfer of data, power, and ground signals between the daughter board and the motherboard.
In one typical circuit board configuration, the motherboard connector is configured as a receptacle that includes a number of electrical contact portions disposed within the receptacle. Also in the typical circuit board configuration, the daughter board defines an edge having several contact pads corresponding to the contact portions disposed within the receptacle. During assembly, a manufacturer inserts the edge of the daughter board having the contact pads within the receptacle of the motherboard. Such insertion forms an electrical connection between the contact portions disposed within the receptacle and the contact pads of the daughter board and provides for electrical communication between the motherboard and the daughter board. In such an arrangement, after assembly, a planar surface of the daughter board orients substantially perpendicular to a planar surface of the motherboard.
In another typical circuit board configuration, a motherboard has a motherboard connector coupled to a planar surface of the motherboard and a daughter board has a daughter board connector coupled to a planar surface of the daughter board. In one arrangement, the daughter board connector has multiple pins (e.g., the daughter board connector has a pin density of approximately 400 to 500 pins) and the corresponding motherboard connector has multiple sockets corresponding to the pins of the daughter board connector. Based on such a configuration, a manufacturer couples the daughter board to the motherboard in mezzanine or parallel-board arrangement. During assemblies, the manufacturer aligns the daughter board connector with the motherboard connector and presses the daughter board against the motherboard to mate the corresponding connectors.